Intellectual Property Law

Join and Support "Change Congress"

By Siva Vaidhyanathan

Lawrence Lessig has launched his new project to clean up American politics. It's called Change Congress.

Our Principles

Change Congress is a national movement to end corruption in America's congress. We're organizing citizens to push candidates to make four simple commitments:
1. No money from lobbyists or PACs

Congresspeople should be beholden to citizens, not special interests. By committing not to accept money from lobbyists or PACs, candidates give us confidence that their votes won't be swayed by big money. This pledge was most prominently advanced by Senator Edwards in his Presidential campaign. To read more, click here.
2. Vote to end earmarks

Earmarks allow congresspeople to explicitly decide who should get the money our government spends. Because of the earmark economy, money that is supposed to go to our schools, our soldiers, and our citizens is instead diverted to political donors and pork-barrel projects like the "Bridge to Nowhere". We can't clean up Congress until we end this blatant system of corruption. Republicans have recently pushed prominently for changes such as these. To learn more, click here or here.
3. Support publicly-financed campaigns

It's not enough to just push particular candidates to stay out of the system of corruption; we have to reform the system itself. Publicly- financed campaigns will stop the cycle of campaign finance reform loopholes and ensure that big money stays out of Congress forever. Public financing has been supported by both Republicans and Democrats. For prominent campaigns, see here and here.
4. Support reform to increase Congressional transparency

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we would all benefit from a cleaner Congress if more of its proceedings, and the proceedings of its members, were public. This pledge calls for changes in the law and rules of Congress to get all members to be more public about meetings and contacts, including changing the rules so lawmakers post weekly updates of their campaign contributions, meetings with registered lobbyist, their latest earmark requests and significant changes in their personal wealth. To learn more, click here.

Please check it out and support it. Corruption is the issue of issues.

Full post as published by SIVACRACY .NET on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).